DENVER — In the moments after a series for the Denver Nuggets and a season for the Los Angeles Lakers ended, Jamal Murray met with his head coach Michael Malone and delivered perhaps the understatement of the year.
He had just hit the shot that won another game for the Nuggets, his second game of the first round. He did so with a left calf strain that limited him in an almost debilitating manner Monday night at Ball Arena.
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But Murray’s sense of humor when in a good mood was as good as ever.
“It’s a good thing you played me tonight, coach,” Murray told Malone. “I don’t know if we’ll win if I don’t play tonight.”
Jamal Murray has yet to be an NBA All-Star in his career. He never made an All-NBA team. And yet, how many guys are you going to succeed him in the playoffs? This is what you call a rhetorical question, because the answer should universally be: not much.
Murray put up 50-point heaters in the playoffs. His participation in the playoffs last spring helped the Nuggets win their first title in franchise history. Whatever Murray was during the regular season, he established himself as one of the all-time playoff players in basketball history. And the previous sentence should in no way be a controversial statement.
Monday evening added to its tradition. When Murray dribbled twice to his left and stepped back a foot to shake Lakers guard Austin Reaves, we all knew what was going to happen. The 15 footer was pure. This gave Denver a 108-106 victory at Ball Arena. This gave the Nuggets a 4-1 series victory. This gave Denver a much-needed reprieve before a series with the Minnesota Timberwolves that promises to be grueling.
“The truth is, we were all banged up,” Malone said. “We didn’t know who we were going to have available to finish this game.”
During a Game 3 victory in Los Angeles, backup point guard Reggie Jackson sprained his ankle, an injury that put him on crutches and a protective boot during Denver’s off day at his Santa Monica hotel. In the first half of Game 5 on Monday night, starting shooting guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope sprained his ankle enough to leave the game twice during the rest of the first half. He came back in the second half, drained it and hit several big shots.
Murray strained his calf in the second half of Game 4, Denver’s only loss of the series. He started Monday as questionable to play. So Murray arrived at Ball Arena earlier than usual to receive treatment, try to stretch and loosen the calf and decide if he would be able to play. Calf strains are by nature a delicate and dangerous injury. These are soft tissue injuries that heal slowly. More importantly, they usually lead to more serious conditions, such as Achilles tendon injuries.
In previous playoffs, the 2019 NBA Finals series featuring the Golden State Warriors and Toronto Raptors changed when then-Warriors forward Kevin Durant returned from a calf strain and finished by rupturing the Achilles tendon. In 2021, a second-round series featuring the Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Clippers turned, in part, when then-Jazz point guard Mike Conley strained his calf. During the current playoffs, the Milwaukee Bucks did not have Giannis Antetokounmpo in a first-round game against the Indiana Pacers due to a calf strain he suffered near the end of the regular season .
These examples serve to tell the story of why the Nuggets themselves didn’t want Murray to play on Monday night. And apparently the reasoning was sound. With a 3-1 lead heading into Game 5, if Denver beat the Lakers without Murray, it would give the point guard seven days to heal. Otherwise? The hope would then be that Murray would be ready to play in Thursday night’s Game 6 in Los Angeles.
“I came in a little early just to get treatment, and I felt like I could play,” Murray said. “They told me no. I didn’t say no. I didn’t want to leave my teammates out. I didn’t want to dry them out. I couldn’t have lived with myself if I hadn’t done everything I could to be on the field tonight.
Monday night wasn’t the first time this season that Murray played a game against Denver’s wishes. Near the end of the regular season, the Nuggets wanted to sit Murray against the Utah Jazz to protect against Murray’s sore left knee. The Utah game was the start of a back-to-back road game, with the Nuggets then facing the Timberwolves at Ball Arena the following night. On the team’s flight to Salt Lake City, Murray approached Malone and begged him to play. He did so and had a big fourth quarter to power the Nuggets against the Jazz, and played the next night, a win against Minnesota.
Murray is an honest and raw human being. He is passionate and will let you know exactly what he thinks. Malone is a perfect fit for him because he is open to honest and sometimes tough and emotional conversations. It was a key Monday night. The worry, of course, was that Murray would play in Game 5 and injure his calf, and that’s something the Nuggets didn’t want. But Murray wasn’t going to sit out a playoff game, not if he could help it. So he and Malone had this conversation. And then Murray, Malone and the practice squad had this conversation. They came up with a plan, and Murray suited up and got ready to play.
“I knew he was going to play, to be honest,” Denver star Nikola Jokić said. “Without talking to him, I knew he wanted to play and wanted to be in the big games. Even if he didn’t do his best, that’s not how you start, that’s how you end.
Murray was 13 of 28 from the field Monday night, while making five of his 10 3-point attempts. He scored a game-high 32 points, including making gargantuan shots down the stretch aside from the game-winning goal. He dove at LeBron James, who was incredible in his own right, and ducked in front of him. He ran through the defense at will in the final five minutes.
He wasn’t 100 percent.
From the first possessions, it was clear that Murray couldn’t explode off the dribble the way he wanted. It was clear he hadn’t taken his usual first step. The Nuggets wanted to limit his minutes as much as possible, but he ended up playing 40 on Monday night. Ironically, this might have been the best thing for Murray, because playing kept the calf warm and loose, and Murray was playing and shooting the ball better as the match progressed.
“I was moving pretty well to play,” Murray said. “But jumping was the most important thing for me. That was the hardest challenge, getting off the floor, even on my jump shot. So I went deeper before shooting the ball, because I wanted to put as little pressure on my calf as possible.
On Monday night, Malone spoke about the question facing the Nuggets. Did they want to sit Murray? Or did they want to put their chips in the middle of the table and try their hardest to end the series with the Lakers? It was a collaborative conversation, but ultimately, the Nuggets opted for the latter. The price was a victory in Game 5, nearly a week of rest and the fact that Murray didn’t get further injured.
And now the Nuggets and Wolves advance to the series many have been waiting for.
“The bigger the moment, the more Jamal Murray shines,” Malone said. “He’s a tough guy.”
(Photo: David Zalubowski / Associated Press)
